Mold release is liberally applied to the clay and insides of the box. I use a aerosol spray-on product made from halogenated hydrocarbons in ether, well-worth the money for it’s effectiveness and ease of use. The plaster is poured, shaped and formed over the clay blanket. Doing this deserves some more photos, but I am too involved to stop and take them. Mixing plaster and applying it is a skill I have only begun to get at all proficient. This is about 1.5 to 2 inches thick, about right, could be thinner.

Removing the foamcore box, I trim and smooth out the plaster with a palette knife. It is mostly pointless, but I can reduced the volume of the plaster shell a little, and anyway, it makes it look nice and feel better to handle.

Now it should cure for least several days to a week. The plaster continues to dry out and get stronger. I want to wait to separate the assembled three layers- plaster, clay blanket, and model, from the cradle, which will be the next step. Removing the cradle will put pressure on the plaster and I want to be sure it is as strong as it needs to be so it doesn’t crack.

Here I’ve boxed in the front half, preparatory to pouring the plaster mother mold half. It includes a pour sprue and vents at all the high spots.

It’s made from foam core, hot glue and packing tape. I think this is a way to work faster, and have a smaller plaster mold to deal with. I have usually made these boxes from wood, but this is easier to fit to the shape of the model. I hope it will be strong enough to support the weight of the liquid plaster. The inner surface of the foam core is lined with packing tape, and the whole clay surface will be sprayed with mold release before the plaster goes on.

Vents must release the air from the mold at every high spot, or the poured liquid silicone will not be able to fill the mold entirely. I may still add a second sprue; While the silicone is forgivingly self-leveling, this mold has so much topography that it may be helpful. I can also thin the silicone to help it flow more smoothly.

I’ve built out the parting line a little, to get a better sense of if this will work, especially between the body and the arms. This is all tentative. The real establishment of the parting line will take place later.

I wrap the model in plastic wrap to protect it from sticking to the clay blanket too much. This will come off later before I pour the silicone rubber inner mold.

And it goes back in the cradle.

And I begin to cover it with a thin blanket of clay, about 3/8th inch thick. It is upon this blanket that the plaster mother mold will be poured. It is essential that there be no undercuts or catches which will bind the plaster to the clay surface, which itself will eventually be replaced by slicone rubber. As complex as my model is, I think this is evident to work OK.

Along the way I create the pour spouts. Vents will get included later, when I’m doing the parting line. Still some ways from that now.

To work on a mold comfortably and productively, it is helpful to situate it in a position where the parting line, and therefore the halves of the mold, are laying horizontal. This way is easier to get your hands on it, and to see by light from above, what you want to work on. Also, when you pour plaster or silicone rubber, it is easier to make it flow and have a system of vents in the horizontal, and to cover the whole piece evenly. Therefore, it is my practice to build a cradle to hold the piece in the position I favor, which keeps the parting line generally facing upwards, and which is usually the case with figurative sculpture, having a parting line most often from the back and front. The construction of such a cradle can be complex and time consuming itself, but I feel it pays off well in results of the finished mold, and in the ease and comfort of working on it. You can see examples of figurative sculpture molds made in the vertical orientation, but the difficulty and discomfort of it out weighs the effort to make the cradle in my opinion. A craftsman does his best work in a comfortable, well lit and equipped situation. Since I recently received a gift of excellent fluorescent work lighting installed in the studio by my loving wife "A., I am appreciating this fact very much.

I begin wanting a surface which will support the weight of the model evenly and steady. I cut and trim and fit a sheet of paper which is creased and folded to fit the complex shape of the piece.

I flatten and apply this template to a sheet of aluminum, the kind used for roof flashing. It is firm, but folds easily. I recreate the paper shape and fit it to the model.

After some adjustments, I hot-glue some foam-core supports to stiffen and secure the shape I want. Foam-core is strong, easy to cut to any shape, and glue. I also get large sheets of it for free out of the dumpster behind the local university school of art at the end of the Spring term.

Is it right? Fill it up with foam until it is as strong as you need it. Sides, edges, everywhere. Think: it will eventually need to support the full weight of a plaster mother-mold half which will be poured on top of it. And then add a little thin soft foam, automotive headliner is good for this, to cushion the model in a bed. You don’t want the model to deform under it’s own weight, during all the more work that’s to follow.

That’s how you go through all the trouble to make a cradle that fits, and evenly supports the model in a position you can work on it easily and accurately. Trust me, it will be worth it.

I’m returning at last to Cyclops, my current, suspended project, after the extended rehearsal of making the beachstones’ molds, which I did to prepare myself for the intricate mold that this piece will require. In the time away, I’ve realized the need to separate the head into parts, since, because it is hollow, I cannot find a way to mold in one piece. If I cut off the two bands which make the back of the head, I think it is barely possible to make the mold in two parts, front and back, with an additional small mold for the cut pieces. At best, the waxes from front-back mold will still need a lot of repair and touch-up where it doesn’t release well from the mold because of the intricacy of the shape. Eventually, the waxes from these molds will be joined to make the wax model for the bronze ultimate. So this mold, as best as I think In can make it, will still entail a lot of handwork to detail before casting.

The model has a wire armature; the trick is to find a way to cut through it cleanly; I finally found a use for a Dremel tool with the little bitty cutting wheel people seem to love so much.

Meanwhile the dipping of the ceramic shell mold for the beachstones’ bronze pour is progressing. This is six coats, will need around ten.